SPL's Blog

Thank you for a wonderful birthday!

SPL and neighbor KAS showing off his birthday hiking belt gift
Originally uploaded by khowe

SPL wants to say thank you to all of his family, friends, and fans for celebrating his 3rd birthday with him (near or far :-). As you can see from the photos, he had a fun-filled celebration both on Sunday July 6th at Ortega Park and Sunday July 13th, his actual birthday, at home with his TX grandparents, CA cousins, aunt, and uncle.

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma!

Thank you Nan!

Thank you Aunt Beth, Uncle Scott, ACR, KAR, EVR!

Thank you Grandee and Dana!

Thank you Gigi!

Thank you Bampa and Myra!

Thank you MKH, Auntie Other Person, and Uncle Rodney

Thank you to SPL's friends who came to his party in the park: The Sturtevant family, the Yeni-Komshian-Rodriguez family, the Nash family, the Hanson family, and Uncle Nikhyl and Aunt Chandre.

SPL loves all of you!

Moosey ready for bed

Moosey ready for bed
Originally uploaded by khowe

This was what I found when I went to get ready for bed tonight. I remember now that SPL had said "moosey's going to sleep with you" earlier this afternoon but I didn't realize that SPL had actually tucked him in to my bed.

:-)

Where do ladybugs lay their eggs?

animals of the world
Originally uploaded by khowe

As a result of reading this book about how different things grow (thanks Nan!), SPL had the question about where ladybugs lay their eggs (the book takes the reader through how different organisms grow:  from frogs to strawberries, butterflies to snails to kittens, the main character Oscar (a kitten himself) finds out how living things begin, why they eat, and how they grow.). One of the pages had a ladybug on it and it was the only animal pictured that wasn't fully described re. its eggs. Hence SPL's question.

Grandma went to the computer and found some great sites for him to look at but since we ran out of time yesterday, we looked @ the websites this morning (Grandma left them open on the computer -- she had to go home to TX today).

And then later this morning, John and I found him sitting at the dining room table with this book open (thanks Nan!). When we asked him what he was doing, he said "looking up where ladybug lay their eggs."

And he was in the insect section and actually found the ladybug info (pictures of course :-)

Thanks Grandma and Nan for the inspiration!

Listening to SPL catch up with Emily after 2 weeks' absence

SPL couldn't sleep this afternoon and just got up to find his favorite babysitter was back (SPL's grandparents had been here so we gave Emily some time off :-):

Immediately upon seeing her -- "I have something to show you."  And runs to get his pink swimming award.

******

Looking at something in the guest room:

SPL:  "It's kermit the crab....no it's Kermit the Frog!  he's not a crab, he's a frog (giggles)
SPL:  Are the socks inside out.  Oh boy.  A lot of mommy's clothes and a lot of my clothes.  I'll help you fold. (Emily was helping us fold the laundry)

SPL:  Where did you park your car?
Emily:  In the shade so it would stay cool.
SPL:  When I got my new carseat -- when I sit in it, it's too hot.  Mom puts the picnic cover on it now so it doesn't get hot.  I don't know why my mom doesn't park in the shade?
Emily:  There aren't any big trees outside your house.
SPL:  That tree is still small.  Did you know we got a new tree?  When it gets big, we can park there. 

SPL:  And Evelia came today (our housekeeper).  See, our house is so clean.  When Evelia doesn't come, it's so dirty.

SPL:  My mom is working so I'm with you.

SPL:  That's a firefox.  My dad works @ Mozilla.

SPL:  that's kermit the frog behind the door.  And it's right there on the bookshelf too -- a book with Kermit.  What a lot of kermits there are. 

SPL:  Emily, I like your toes.  They're red and white.  My mom sometimes has red toes too.  But not now. Do boys have painted toes?  Daddy and I are boys.  Let me go check if mom has painted toes now (runs into office where I am) -- and reports to me "Mom, you don't have painted toenails now, right?  Emily has red and white toenails."

SPL:  Grandma and grandpa went home today to Texas - on a big BIG airplane. 

Yes, this is pretty much verbatim of their 10 minute conversation (there were parts I missed and I obviously didn't catch Emily's side -- she's pretty soft spoken unlike SPL :-)

I did it!

Today was SPL's 3rd day in the "transitions" class and his 2nd day solo -- and he was a happy guy!  Hooray!  After a few "but I don't want to go swimming, my finger hurts" :-) comments at home, he made it successfully to the pool and through the 30 minute class without a tear!

He also got his pink ribbon -- their award for swimming alone without a parent for the first time (which he actually earned last week, 7/9, but they had run out of ribbons that day so we got ours today :-).

He did great putting his face in the water, practicing kicking, and jumping in.  I was particularly proud of his "starfish float" (on his back) as that's what he struggled with most last year (when I swam with him).

More photos

Happy 3rd Birthday!

doh! today is my birthday!
Originally uploaded by khowe

Today is SPL's 3rd birthday - - hard to believe @ 3:20 pm 3 years ago he came into this world.

He's now 38+ lbs and 40+ inches (he won't let us measure him) up from the 8 lbs 1 oz and 19 inches of his birth.

Happy Birthday! More details and photos soon.

3rd Birthday Party in the Park!

Singing Happy Birthday
Originally uploaded by khowe

To celebrate SPL's 3rd birthday, we had a party at a Sunnyvale park last weekend (Sunday July 6).  SPL invited a few of his friends, MR (a buddy from preschool), JMN (son of some friends of ours), LRH (daughter of some friends of ours), and our neighbor KAS.  We also had his 3 local cousins, EVR(to SPL's right in the photo to the right),, KAR (to SPL's left in the photo to the right), and ACR, Aunt Beth and Uncle Scott (who helped set up the tables -- many thanks!), the parents of all the above mentioned kids, Uncle Nikhyl and Aunt Chandre, and SPL's grandparents from TX (who helped him bake and ice the cupcakes -- thanks Grandma and Grandpa!).

We had a trucks theme as SPL has been playing with them non-stop of late.  Our goal was to keep the party as simple as possible so we had some fun but low impact activities including balloon rockets, painting/art, and bubbles.  A cement mixer pinata also added to the fun (though SPL refused to bat :-(). 

More fun photos

Swimming solo

Last week, SPL graduated to the "transition" class at swimming which means he's no longer in the "parent and me" class and will be learning more basic swimming skills.  We lucked out too as the Wednesday class is empty so we have a private lesson for now :-).

Wednesday (7/2) was his first day in the new class and I spent half of it in the pool with him and half of it cheering him on from the side.

This week (7/9) he got to get in the pool by himself.  I was a bit worried as he started saying "I don't want to go swimming" 30 minutes before we even left for the pool!  And he was crying -- not the whining cry but his actual cry, with tears.  And he cried all the way to the pool. 

The extended crying did concern me but I kept reminding myself that he had been upset last week too, but when we got home, he said "I had  fun" when I asked him what he thought about swimming.  And I secretly had my swim suit on under my regular clothes so I was prepared (though he hadn't seen me put it on :-).

I handed him off to Teacher Tracy when we arrived at the pool (she also has a 3 year old son :-) and 10 minutes into his lesson, he was high-fiving her and putting his face in the water by himself!

I didn't take the camera as I wasn't sure how it'd go but will try to snap some photos this week.